BEIJING: China’s Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB), the world longest cross-sea bridge, opens for group tourists on a trial basis starting Friday.
A tour route commencing at the Zhuhai port to Blue Dolphin Island – one of HZMB’s four artificial islands, which lasts roughly 140 minutes, will be open for group tourists. Tourists from the Chinese mainland with valid ID cards and the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions who have entered the mainland with valid travel permits are eligible to join the tour during the trial operation.
Tourists can enjoy a front seat view of the HZMB, including three channel bridges – the sail-shaped Jiuzhou Channel Bridge, the dolphin-shaped Jianghai Channel Bridge and the Chinese knot-shaped Qiangzhou Channel Bridge, the White Dolphin Island and an undersea tunnel section along the route, and board the Blue Dolphin Island. They are requested not to stray from the tour route and back track to the Zhuhai port in groups after the tour. The tickets are priced at 188 yuan (about $26) per person during the trial operation which allows 1,200 visitors per day. Data from the HZMB border inspection station showed that as of December 6, the bridge had facilitated 14.53 million trips of passengers and 2.93 million vehicles to cross the border, 1.2 times and 3.7 times of the same period in 2019 respectively.
On November 26 alone, more than 15,000 vehicles crossed the border through the Zhuhai port, setting a highest single-day record since the official opening of the bridge. The HZMB is the first supergiant sea-crossing project jointly constructed by Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao under the policy “One Country, Two Systems.”
Stretching across 55 kilometers, it showcases an extraordinary achievement in engineering, featuring the world’s longest span, the longest steel structure bridge and the longest submerged tube tunnel. –The Daily Mail-CGTN news exchange item
